♪♪ (typewriter dings) ♪♪ The beauty of Iowa -- ♪♪ -- I've been affected in a very positive way about the natural beauty of this state, which I think lends itself to the reflective nature of some of the music that I have released.

♪♪ I think that courses through the veins of Curious Music.

♪♪ ♪♪ Curious Music is a record label.

It is basically just me.

♪♪ I have two daughters and then I have several grandchildren.

They have all helped me.

We're trying to produce good art for people in different ways.

Vinyl record, CD, download.

♪♪ Some of my first memories I think when I was like three or four was about music and music even then spoke to me.

♪♪ When I was like twelve or thirteen my mind started expanding a little bit, like it does when you're a teenager.

♪♪ And college radio, we lived in a college town, they play an album side.

♪♪ My mom, she had me vacuum the living room.

So this Kraftwerk track, Autobahn, was 24 minutes long.

It started and then I vacuumed for 10 minutes, the song was only halfway over.

♪♪ It was just this different world that had its own language, its own sensibility, its own philosophical perspective.

And even at 12 it just hit me.

♪♪ That was really the seed or kernel of Curious Music.

Good morning!

Good morning.

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

Fantastic.

When I choose what to work on for my label I'm always looking for something that is unique, has a voice or language of its own.

I've been getting great feedback from that video we put up, by the way.

People love it.

So that is why I don't put out 50 albums a year.

♪♪ I've done releases by Harold Budd, who is very well known, producer and composer.

Kate St John, who was in the Dream Academy.

A two-person group in Ohio called Heavy Color.

The soundtrack to the documentary film called Invisible Hand, executive produced by Mark Ruffalo.

To me it hinges on whether -- is in or out.

It's sort of like asking us which baby do you love more.

Amanda Berlind.

She is just getting started.

Joachim Roedelius.

Roedelius was in a group called Cluster.

♪♪ Tim Story, of course.

Tim Story is a Grammy nominated composer and producer.

I got a letter from Russ in the mid-80s.

He and I shared some musical interests.

He sponsored and was roadie and booker and management for the very first Cluster tour, this very legendary German duo.

And he asked me if I would like to tag along and record a few of the shows on the West Coast.

I would release CDs and I went on tours with people and we were doing licensing and blah, blah, blah.

Back then it was letters and phone calls.

I got burnt out, so I just stopped.

♪♪ And then David Bowie died, I think it was on January 10th, 2016.

Big hero of mine.

That affected me more than I thought it would.

His death was a little bit of a trigger for me thinking about getting involved in these things creatively again.

Do you want to work on that some more?

Or should we set it aside?

And also I was observing that all these things that were so hard to do back in 1992, much easier to do now.

♪♪ In February, I published the first book that I have done.

Has Ben or Sam talked to you about t-shirts?

Increasingly I am getting involved in virtual things, installations in museums and things like that.

I like how you have the bleed on the tray.

When I'm putting together a project, I'm thinking about the individual experience.

And I am the only person in the world who is going to notice or care about that probably.

(laughs) Sitting down, whether it is with a glass of wine or whatever -- I really love this one.

This is called Coke bottle clear.

-- getting enveloped in this not only sound experience but the visual work.

A friend of ours who passed away, his name was Mark Packo, so these are a bunch of his pictures.

Sometimes I make decisions that I know are going to be challenging commercially.

But we're producing really good work that I believe is going to find its audience.

♪♪ I want to see what is around the bend, over the horizon, around the corner.

That is what Curious Music is.

And that gives me a lot of energy.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ (typewriter sounds) (typewriter dings)